The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Season 2 Premiere)

Hey! This may surprise you but Season 2 of The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power started. Yeah, I knew it was coming and I even agreed to cover it then as I fired up my FireTV on Labor Day you can imagine how surprised I was to see the first 3 episodes have been out for a few days.

Now I am not surprised just because I missed it, that happens, I don’t have cable so any marketing with commercials I probably missed but I am SHOCKED I didn’t see more discussion online. That is worrying. After seeing all the discourse around shows like The Acolyte, or House of the Dragon, and yes even Rings of Power Season 1, to have almost no one on my feed talking about it for days after is a tad worrying. 

So with all that let’s get down to it. I did watch all of Season 1 and I felt it was hurt by running hand in hand with the first season of HotD and Andor. Both of those shows were just a step above and RoP really got lost in the shuffle beyond anything that wasn’t hardcore Tolkien fans hating on it. To me Season 1 was…ok, I didn’t hate the hour a week I spent watching it and there are a lot of shows I start and don’t finish (I swear I’ll get back to you 3 Body Problem) so that has to stand for something.

On paper, it has everything, an established brand, spectacular visuals, and an amazing score, but something always just felt a little off. Like everyone was giving their best, the performances weren’t bad, it just was missing something. The only thing I could land on was just how much GoT had rewired our brains to what a fantasy series was, the high fantasy of Tolkien just felt a little old hat and disingenuous. I never landed on a concrete theory for this and then the series was over and I kind of went on with my life but here we are at Season 2 and watching these first 3 episodes I find myself feeling a lot of the same things.

I’m in awe of the visuals, some of the moments do go pretty hard but it all feels very surface-level. The best I can come up with is that we don’t really have an anchor to empathize with and invest in. Again, the performances are good but the closest thing to having a character to “root” for is the literal Dark Lord of all things and “Ren Fair Hitler”. What does it say that I am most intrigued and invested in Sauron’s story and not in a Homelander “obviously he’s the bad guy” way but in more “this guy is misunderstood I want to see him win” way? Galadriel isn’t relatable and there are numerous YouTube commenters detailing why, some with the thinned layer of misogyny you may expect from any genre property today but some with valid criticisms. There is very little to actually like about her as a person. I don’t care if she succeeds in whatever it is she is trying to do. And that is the other end of the spectrum. I don’t know what anyone is trying to achieve other than Sauron. The motivations of Every character are muddy and not made clear. It feels like when I am watching it I missed a memo or something about why this person is doing what they are and why the music is making it feel like the most important thing ever. Now I had my LotR phase in my youth as we all did but I don’t confess to being as steeped in the lore as I am with other properties like Star Wars so maybe there are some nerds out there who are flipping over what they are seeing but I am missing something. Or as the kids say “the math ain’t mathing”. 

I am more intrigued by my own journey with the show and if they can bring me in, I am an easy target and am open to being won over. I am not coming in looking to hate it, I don’t have a YouTube channel where I pay my bills on sewing negative discourse. I want to love this show and have it fill that void but I simply care little for anyone and I am also not sure why I should care what they are doing. Your move show.